The Presidents, Board members and Executives of the Australian Library and Information Association, Library Association of Singapore and Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa met on Wednesday 1 August, during the Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference, held at the Gold Coast Conference and Exhibition Centre, Queensland, Australia.
We discussed topics of shared interest relating to:
1. Maintaining relevance and building association membership in each of our countries
2. Creating more opportunities for high quality, affordable library-related education, training and professional development
3. Acknowledging, embracing and engaging with indigenous knowledge
4. Even stronger advocacy for associations, the library sector and our members
5. Future conferences attracting audiences from the three nations and the broader Asia-Pacific region.
We agreed that the benefits of collaboration, which led to our three-way Memorandum of Understanding in 2016, were still to be realised, and that it would be worth exploring further joint initiatives in the five areas noted above.
We planned to meet by video-conference three to four times a year to discuss, scope and implement activities. We also planned to revisit and refresh our Memorandum of Understanding.
The three associations were very pleased by the success of the Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference, and wanted to maintain the momentum, goodwill and spirit of cooperation created around the joint conference, with members, delegates, library leaders, government representatives and industry partners.
Lyndall Osborne, President, ALIA
Samantha Ang, President, LAS
Paula Eskett, President, LIANZA